Facebook, Google and Twitter have agreed to delete hate speech posted to their sites in Germany within 24 hours.

German justice minister Heiko Mass confirmed the government had reached an agreement for hate speech that could be classed a criminal to be taken down within 24 hours of being reported. "When the limits of free speech are trespassed, when it is about criminal expressions, sedition, incitement to carry out criminal offences that threaten people, such content has to be deleted from the net," Mass said, according to Reuters. "And we agree that as a rule this should be possible within 24 hours."

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In September German Chancellor Angela Merkel was overheard confronting Mark Zuckerberg on how the company wasn't doing enough to crack down on racist posts on the website.

During a United Nations development summit a private conversation between the two was accidentally picked up by nearby microphones, Bloomberg reported.

Merkel asked the Facebook founder whether action was being taken to remove any of the offensive posts, with Zuckerberg replying "we need to do some work".

The announcement also follows German prosecutors launching investigations into Facebook staff over the alleged failure to remove racist hate speech.

November saw prosecutors in Hamburg start investigating Martin Ott, the European head of Facebook, over posts not being removed. Facebook, at the time, said the "allegations lack merit".